AIW X1800XL Crashing

[MiCm]

ati AIW X1800XL graphics card keeps crashing

Hi, i'm havin some problems with my new card and wondered if anyone could help me out?

Bought an ATI All-in-wonder X1800XL card yesterday. Fitted it, hooked up the power supply installed the drivers and software, etc. booted to desktop ok, but when i tried testing it out on a game the card crashed and VPU recover had to reset it.

The screen suddenly becomes distorted with about 10-15 columns of sqaure multi-coloured blocks in diagonals up and down the screen

Before this card was another PCI-Express card that was just a basic GeForce 6200 which came with the PC. Unsuprisingly this didn't need a power supply of its own. The power supply i'm using is a Bestec 300w, which again came with the pc

This is a link to a photo of just after the card hung (couldn't take screenshot):

I'd appreciate any ideas anyone has about what the issue could be cos I desperately want to try the card out with some serious gaming

Cheers

 

[paranoid guy]

First things first: Did you uninstall the old graphics card drivers?
Did you connect the molex cable to the psu?
Can you give us the amps on the 12volt rail?
Are you sure you have the latest drivers for your card?

 

[MiCm]

yes i've uninstalled the previous drivers, add/remove programs to uninstall the drivers, then ran registry mechanic to make sure.

19A on the 12v rail

i tried the latest catalyst drivers and there was no difference, if anything the card was more unstable than it was before, so i've gone back to the ones on the driver disc

i connected the power cable to the card when i first fitted it. there is no specialised 6-pin connector from the PSU so im using the 4-pin to 6-pin adapter that came with the graphics card. i have since swapped the 4-pin connectors about to see if that made a difference but it hasn't

 

[paranoid guy]

I don't think 19A on the 12volt rail is enough to power that card, but I'll need someone else(Is Kirock around?) to confirm that. Can you tell us what temperature the card is running at?

 

[Sharkfood]

Not just is 19A an iffy amperage for the 12v rail, but a 300W PSU likely doesn't have enough juice for that card.

All your symptoms could indeed be from poor power feed, aside from it being an overall bad/defective card. I'd consider a PSU upgrade first as even if it is a bad/defective card, you'll want a 350-400W for such an upgrade with a solid 12v rail.

 

[paranoid guy]

Just for future reference, Sharkfood, what is a good amount of amps to have on the 12v rail? Lets say I had a 400w psu. Would 26A on the 12volt rail be good?

 

[MiCm]

cheers guys. of all the possible causes i could think of that i hadn't already eliminated, power was the most likely one as ati recommend 450w for the card, but since other people ive read up on have had insufficient power issues, but have still managed to get the card to work ok, i assumed my problem was a bit extreme for it to be power related.

did the link in my first post work by the way? it works ok for me but i think it might need a login to access it and since my browsers set for auto-login its hard to tell

ive put in an order for a new PSU from ebuyer. its a decent one and should provide more than enough power

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/90609

what do you recommend i do in the mean time? should i put my original geforce 6200 back in until i can upgrade the PSU? i dont want to risk damaging my card or any other components for that matter

 

[Sharkfood]

From ATI's website for the X1800XL series:

"450-Watt power supply or greater recommended (assumes fully loaded system)"[\i][\quote]
http://www.ati.com/products/RadeonX1800/radeonx1800XL/specs.html

These X1800/X1900 series cards *can* run (but barely) on a 19A/12v rail PSU. I'm unsure what further draw the AIW, tuner and capture board + chip may have so I'm unsure of the card mentioned here. I do know that the X1800 XL and X1900 XT's will only work on *some* higher quality 19A/12v rail PSU's (Antec, Thermaltake, PCC&C, etc.). Cheaper, non-name brand 19A/12v rail PSU's will exhibit the symptoms shown in the screenshot and frequent lock-ups or crashes.

ATI insanely has raised their X1900 standards to *suggest* 450W minimum + 30A 12v (!!). I think this has more to do with Crossfire usage though as I've gotten many X1900 series to work on 19A rail, *QUALITY* PSU's. Anything less, and you're gambling for instability.

 

[Sharkfood]

MiCm-
The very best maker of PSU's is PCC&C. Antec makes good PSU's as well ( their higher end SmartPowers.. their middle/lower ends can be junk though).. as well as Thermaltake.

If you go over though (i.e. higher wattage, good 12v rail overhead), you should be okay. Just keep in mind that cheaper, budget PSU's will not always hold solid power feed at their rated maximums. Name brand/higher quality PSU's can... so if you're going generic/cheap.. get something way overkill if you want to even gamble for stability!

 

[MiCm]

Yea, the one i've ordered is antec as they seem to come highly recommended. hopefully this will solve the problem. If not, it'll be back to the drawing board

 

[MiCm]

Antec 500w fitted, Still doesn't work!

Ok, my new 500w antec power supply arrived, and i replaced my old one with it. Started up ok, everything seemed to run smooth so i ran BF2. Started a single player game for the time being. It loaded up and no problems.

After about 2 mins it went back exactly how it was with the old power supply (300w), with the diagonal multicouloured mini squares up and down the page again. Also tested ghost recon AW; exact same thing happened

Any suggestions?

 

[MiCm]

Sorry, forgot to mention, the antec psu is a smartpower one and came highly recommended

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/90609